Welcome back to another episode (vvp43) of Valerie’s Variety Podcast and this week we are discussing a recent experience we had with Vets To Go.

Lately we’ve been struggling with our furry friend in the house. Our 17 year old cat Tig is going through some life changes. I had googled aging signs in cats as I’ve definitely seen her showing some signs of aging like: moving more slowly, eating less hard food, I’ve inteofuced some wet food, sleeping a bit more than usual. Also not hearing and seeing as well. She’s always been very affectionate purring likes to sit on my lap – she’s my cat for sure. Google noted a few things like eating less, showing signs of weight loss and honestly she has started to feel a little bit bonier lately.

My husband had suggested that maybe it’s time for a vet visit. It’s been a few years since I took her to the vet well maybe like 5 years. So yes it is indeed Time.

Some of the signs that we were up against are:

– howling in the night take a listen to this

– missing her litter box

– peeing on the carpet

– vomiting a bit more than usual

Hae you struggled with your cat and some of these issues. What have you done that has worked?

Tig Moss

On our daily commute we drive by a Vets to Go business so I thought I’d give them a try. We were driving out to the mountains while having this discussion about going to a vet and I thought about this option. I went into their website and filled in the forms- scheduled a visit right from my car! How easy was this? I also read a few reviews on this company and you know mostly it’s about home euthanasia putting your pet to sleep in the comfort of their home- BUT they do all sorts of vet service – mobile. Great concept hey?

This most welcoming Vet showed up At my home on time and with such a great attitude. Really put me at ease and no ‘white coat syndrome’ off the start anyway. She proceeded to talk me through the process and how this works at home. She asked me for some background details. Take a listen.

We set up right in my kitchen on the island. The Vet Ask me to lay a towel out. And find the cat.

Then I couldn’t find Tig! I went looking for her all over 11:09 upstairs downstairs I checked under the beds oh man! Shaking her treat dish calling her name where the heck was she?? I finally find her

The Vet proceeded to check her out and snuggle her up. I think Tig lost like 14 handfuls of fur while she was there.

“Did you know you’re so pretty she says to Tig”

She puts Tig into this grocery style of bin. You know like from Safeway hard sided bin that collapses with handles. It’s attached to a scale. Tig gets in here and we weigh her as a team!

She jumps out. Like any female didn’t want to see the weigh in results!!

Good explanation for the yowling hey? She wants to look at our litter boxes.Ugh I wasn’t expecting this but here goes nothing! For her age she’s looking pretty good! That made me feel like I’m doing the right things

As a follow up to this CBD option, we’ve started using this since we had the Vet visit and we haven’t noticed any change in howling…but maybe it’s making Tig more comfortable and not so arthritic.

Can you hear my voice start to quiver…yep I’m that pet owner, nervous for the bad the news…

Character of the Vet

She good at changing the topic and making me feel at ease hey? What a nice person, so we proceed to setup and take blood from Tig who by the way became very feisty. But in the end is all worked out. And true to what the Vet said, Tig did stay around afteward and hang out with us – strange , she didn’t bolt up the stairs to hide. She stayed and was part of the remainder time. That’s all for my recording with the vet, I did bleep out her name to save her privacy as I didn’t ask her permission for this recording. However, I think if this is any indication of the kind of person she is – it bodes well to the type of people Vets to go hires.

Tig Moss

I had a wonderful experience with this service and do recommend it to anyone that requires vet service. The cost was $450 for the visit, the exam and the blood collection and diagnosis. That’s what I would have likely spent in an actual Veterinary office but without dragging Tig through the stress.

Thanks for listening to this show today. and being part of my vet visit, it was a stressful time for both pet owner and pet. However doing it in my home with this most amazing vet made this a great experience, under the circumstances. Unfortunately, the yowling hasn’t stopped even with the introduction of the CBD oil. I have started to feed her later in the evening before I head to bed. The litter situation is interesting tho. Since we met with the Vet she suggested to open up the dome litter box so she can posture better in there based on her age this might be a little more difficult. We did this and then Tig never used her litter upstairs again, not once. Then she started peeing more downstairs UGH!. It’s been truly a trying time going through different options to figuring this out. So we picked up a new litter bin, and litter at the pet store – with their help on suggestions. And moved the litter into a new place in the house and she’s using it!!! Finally, not going downstairs at all, just using this one litter box and no accidents for the last several weeks. Her yowling in the middle of the night starting around 4am hasn’t stopped yet.

The background voice notes were recorded by me, Valerie Moss, the GarageBand loops I chose today are:

Hi Everyone, welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast this week is Housekeeping episode (vvp42). First I want to say thank you for taking the time to choose this podcast and hanging out with me on Tuesdays. This drives me to continue to produce podcasts every week. I’ve surpassed 40 episodes (some still scheduled to be released) and already building the content for my birthday episode.

HouseKeeping Promo Episode

So can I ask a favour of you?

Could you take one minute and pause this podcast and select a review on your podcast app or iTunes…I’ll wait, go ahead lol. I know all of the podcasters ask this us of listeners, me included. It’s means more now than ever to write a review. For me, if I don’t get feedback I never know if I’m doing a good job or not – I see my download numbers but who are these people anyway? I recently took my own advice and posted a very positive review on google and shared it with the person that did this great job! Guess what? I made her day as she knows she did a good job that made my day. Win Win, right? See how valuable this kind of easy thing is?

Also, would you mind to share this episode with one of your friends? When you look at the podcast through your smartphone’s app select the 3 little dots/icon, this will bring up some options and one of them is share…please share THIS episode with just one of your friends – just one. Your sister, your Auntie, your cousin…you get the idea.

I’m including a promo clip from our first 1-12 episodes. For those of you who are new check this out, for those of you who’ve been with me from the beginning – thank you and check out this recap. If you’ve been with me from the beginning what’s your favourite epidsode?

If you want to text me your comments I’ll read them on a future episode, or give me some feedback I’d love to hear from you – did you know you can text me to my email, valerie@valeriemoss.ca. This show in still an organic podcast a variety show that is based on whatever – whenever. Where I share reviews, news, history, personal stories. Are you’re enjoying this flow and randomness at the same time.

My favourite parts listening to this clip are…plactic cheese – hiding something on their person. Love hearing these different voices I go back to this place where I was at the time of these

Thanks for listening, the intro and outro for this podcast is recorded by London Moss, the intro for the promo clip is recorded by Janice Wilby. Theme music is produced and written by Jason Schnell titled Tascam 40.

Welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast About recent getaway to the mountains. One of my most favourite things is being outside when the weather is cold and brisk but the sun is lighting up the day. With barely a cloud in the sky and it’s so cold and crisp under your feet.

Lake Louise

First stop – Lake Louise, 2 hours north west of Calgary nice drive into the park. Once you pass Canmore of brown lands we were becoming suspicious to the rumours about the snow, but as soon as we passed the park gates Snow Snow Snow

Check out my site for some videos of our drive the day was amazing to travel the abundance of snow hanging on the fence stumps looking like mushroom tops was incredible – this is snow. Also the Chinook arch was beaming with delight. A site to see if you’re not from around here our Chinook arches are a staple here in the mountains swinging our temperatures from minus 10 to plus 10 over night. Feels like spring when we’re in our coldest season.

Listening to the people enjoying the snow, skating on the majestic Emerald Lake, hiking, The mountains are encapsulating us from every direction. the sound, is solid. The 80 cms of snow or 31 inches absorbs the sounds. It’s really quite amazing, if you stop to listen when it snows it’s almost silent.

Me with my family, we enjoyed the scenery capturing a few memories, smiling at all the tourists, people skiing, kids digging into the snow, jumping. Dogs loving it up. Being with like minded people who appreciate a good picture in the freshest air.

Aren’t cameras fun…seeing all the people capturing this moment with loved ones, clicking their cameras big and small to get this moment, to savour this moment just like us.

You know what’s amazing to me is people from all over the world are enjoying the same place as me – in my country, my backyard…I don’t know what they are saying but you can just imagine…this are is beautiful, take a picture of me over here…

From Ice Castles that you can stand in and have a drink in complete with bartender, take pictures peeking out through the windows – yes inside the ice castle. Surrounded by the most in credible 6 mountains. When you stand outside the hotel and looking from left to right the mountains are:

Fairview Mountain

Aberdeen (which kind of hides behind Fairview)

Lefroy

Victoria (the big one in the centre)

Whyte (with Mount Niblock connected to its right)

St. Piran

We walked all around this amazing place. Nestled within these mountains, this chateau and can’t you hear is so quiet with people just taking it all in around us. Taking family pictures. Savouring this experience.

What time is it? I don’t know I say…when I’m on vacation or holidays or away from my busy life I like to loose track of time…this helps me unwind and be in the moment, whenever and whatever I’m doing.

Dig out your boots, your snow pants, favourite warm mitts and toque head to the mountains, get that fresh air on you and in you. This my friends, heal souls and refreshes minds to undertake your next challenge. This is my happy place. What’s your happy place? Why how does it make you feel is it a thing, a song, a person share this with me.

Banff Park Lodge

Next Stop ….checking into the Hotel, we’ve always wanted to Stay at the Banff Park Lodge located on Lynx Street between Wolf Street and Caribou Street – see the theme here? It’s boasting many flags on the outside of the building. True to Banff’s style it’s rock and wood and feels good inside – at the time we were there it was still decorated like Christmas – the trees were as tall as the ceilings over 20′ – stunningly decorated . Although we booked our room online. Here’s our checking in experience.

Like all checkins you need to park your car and mosey up to the reception desk to check in…our gal was lovely….hair dryer to room..so funny.

Parking is underground, in a warm basement, daily parking is advisable, this was your car is safe.. why can’t we remember our licence plate lol…she would run out in the cold to get this detail – thank you lady!

insert here…isn’t that nice how she’s engaging to London, asking her questions, check out her accent, there’s a lot of Auzzie’s in Banff – why – likely because it feels like home 🙂

Thank you…this was we can sleep in then head to brunch yummy!

So Jeff comes back in from getting his licence plate and wants to ask about late check out – this is when you’ve been together as long as we have – on the same page…

hair dryer is cancelled

We were checking in earlier then typical time, but there wasn’t any other rooms available at this time for ready rooms…while Jeff and London were upstairs checking into the brunch and walking around… checking in is always a process…but it was a pleasant experience and they were very kind and accommodating for our requests and questions.

insert voice note – marking reservations…3 people at 12:30 – we are booked for brunch!

After we finished getting checked in, we got nestled into our hotel room, it was a standard room with two queen beds, nice balcony view, clean, small bar to put all of our medleys in to keep chilled on the one side with fridge, a good bathroom that’s been upgraded with finer fixtures. It’s roomy and clean. We freshen up and head out to explore the hotel. Find the pool and the dining area along with the bar that’s has a few patrons mingling and having food and drinks. It’s cozy and welcoming…a waiter greets us.

La Terrazza Dining Room

LaTerrazza dining room, is located within an atrium, still decorated cozily and quaintly for Christmas with small lights and evergreen bows. Located behind the bar off to the side, it’s quiet and intimate. We picked our table. Made our reservation enjoyed an appetizer and a glass of wine. We had the nachos.

The room was very inviting and after enjoying the nachos we wanted to stay and laiase the day away. The nachos were okay and definitely hit the spot but they weren’t the best nachos I have ever had…

We proceeded to go for a walk around Banff, it’s was snowing like crazy which is exactly what we were wishing for. being in the snow…it was also a bit cold but hey it’s the mountains in wintertime, this is what we expected and why people come here.

After the pool we got ready to go to dinner, as you heard we made reservations at La Terraza dining room, the menu sounded great and the ambiance was very fitting. Jeff enjoyed the lobster fettuccini and I tried their special ‘big fish’ served on rice with veggies. It was amazing – London just ate off our plates. I just love that she’s adventurous with food – are you kids, would they eat Lobster and a large flat fish with head and eyes still intact?

Crave Mountain Grill

The next morning we enjoyed brunch in their Crave restaurant Located upstairs with large windows to overlook the Banff mountains and areas.This brunch has been nominated for the ‘best brunch in Banff’ award a few times and this occasion didn’t disappoint. Our waitress was an auzzie and you could tell she loved her job.

Checking in for brunch beginning of voice note.

While we were waiting for our waitress a man came moseying into the restaurant, all the waiters and waitresses said hi to him, he was known to them and familiar. He seems pleasant enough making his way through the restaurant with his walker to assist him. A tall man with grey showing on his face and top of his head – once he removed his toque. Scooching through the tables gingerly placing his walker to not bump into anything. Once he got situated they bought him coffee etc.

Later I met him up at the buffet together, he asked me if I was enjoying Banff and I said yes I returned the question and he said yes for 60 years and the mountains were bigger back then…a local I suspected. Born and raised in Banff – how lucky!

As we enjoyed our brunch with all the fun trimmings of fish, meat, pastry bar, chocolate with fruit fountain and all kinds of salads and warm food time planned the rest of our day we were visiting with our waitress and she was so outgoing and a perfect match to our fine brunch establishment. Cheery and pleasant, good service too. New zealand north island…such a doll how friendly is she? She’s been here for 9 years. Don’t you just love listening to another accent makes it even more gregarious and connects you further to the people around you – you always learn something. Looking out the window was so beautiful, so much snow and the sun making it shimmer it was stunning.

Thanks for listening into our weekend getAway in the mountains, I wanted to share this experience with you as I mentioned earlier the mountains and the cold heals me. This is my place where I get rejuvenated. The sound of the snow, the being beside like-minded people, enjoying the quiet company of my family and being lucky enough to have this experience in my back yard.

If you’re from Calgary you likely ski or snowboard or trek up the mountains hiking. For me the mountains are a peaceful place. Listening to London enjoy the snow and Jeff snapping pictures of us and the environment is where we find our bliss moment.As a side note, The brunch was excellent but a little pricey when you’re in Banff you’ll pay more for the experience and the atmosphere. We were surrounded in people on the ski hill and snowboarding throughout the days, people were giddy with the excitement of the snow, the most snow in over 10 years.

What’s your happy place or is it a person that you can snuggle up with? Find that place in your mind right now and just be there in that moment. I’ll wait….

Thanks for listening. If you have a favourite story to tell me about your happy place let me know…these feel good stories are the best ones to share with each other as it spreads happiness and a warm feeling inside.

The intro and outdo is by London Moss, the music I chose for todays episode is through GarageBand and my personal voice note recordings. I hope you like these voice notes and having a glimpse into our personal experience with the sounds and banter within my family and our GetAway. Some of the music and GarageBand loops I choose for todays episode are:

Extra Curricular Activities from golf, to swimming, to basketball, cycling, to bowling and photography…What’s your preference? This week on Valerie’s Vareiety Podcast we are talking sports and extra curricular actives for your kids and maybe even you! I’m your host Valerie Moss…Enjoy the episode.

What do you have your kids in for extra curricular activities? From gymnastics, to soccer, hockey, swimming, golf – what’s you or your kids activity preference and why?

Gymnastics

London’s quite a small girl and has always been so we thought gymnastics would be good to build up those core mussels and balance in the younger years. She was in gymnastics for about 4 years with back to back sessions. Not competitive but still skill driven and building endurance, balance and passion for the sport. We took her to Flip Factory just off 4 street NE. She went consecutively with her friend Sophie until recently as plans change people moved life adjusts. We noticed many benefits of Gymnastics, for one it provided her the agility and 2 strength that has benefited her with her other sports.

Gymnastics is a good basis for any sport as it gets you familiar with your muscles, posture and power. When you are small, these things matter even more.

Karate

In Valerie’s Variety Podcast Episode 5 we caught a robber in our garage – we came upon him and chased him down the back alley – it was un-nerving and scary. this lead to a renewed discussion about Karate for London. She’s so petit we wanted her to build confidence, strength and learn to defend herself. We purged forward in getting London into karate, subsequent burglar noted event!

This is the second activity she is in…she’s committed to it, still a white belt but moved up from ‘chops’ and is purging forward to get her yellow belt, And since I take her every week, instead of sitting and facebooking, working or listening to podcasts I’ve decided to join in on this amazing sport. Yes at my age and being a female I wanted to show by example and get into shape also. plus maybe learn a skill or two, and hopefully defend myself along the way – honestly I hope I never need to put this to the test. Plus I think it’s something good that we can do togehter, she’s pretty proud of this – we’ll see how it unfolds.

Where and how much $

This particular class on Thursday nights held in Mount Pleasant Community Rec Centre is ran by a husband and wife team. They are incredible and made me feel at ease making this decision. Part of the acku All Canadian Karate Union (http://www.acku.org) practicing the Traditional Skokotan Karate in Alberta and British Columbia. What’s nice about belonging to this club is you can train at any of the facilities and training clubs around the city – it’s part of your monthly fees. And at $55/person or $95/family of two or more that’s a pretty good rate for 2 classes per week or as many as you can fit into your shedule…

Do you or would you take any classes with your kids? There’s a parent in this karate class that has two kids involved in it as well. One thing is, when you’re in class with your children you are separated, and as a result you are not the parent during class time. The Sensai has control as the instructor. So that’s a nice break also. But I do like being in this class with London, she has 7 months of experience into this than I do so she feels very knowledgeable and shows me things – I love it!

One of my clients believes that team sports is the only way to go. You need to be a team in life you need to keep your ‘bench’ full he would say. Growing up I wasn’t into sports but I worked from a young age, therefore I proved to be a good team player. What about you? We have friends/family that live through their kids sports, hockey and soccer plus baseball and golf. To me, that’s just a bit too much for these small people, alternatively if it works for you, then great!

Swimming

We signed her up for swimming to continue her lessons and master this life skill. Swimming is a necessity of life and an important strength to have. We traded gymnastics for swimming. Swimming has been a success! She passed her Swimmer 1 with flying colours, now onto Swimmer 2. We attend the Killarney Swimming Pool on Saturdays mid morning and the class is approx. 45 mins, take a listen.

Why Swimming

Spending summers at the lake, vacationing in places with oceans and pools and travels to hotels with pools has pushed us to ensure London has the training and skills to be a good, safe swimmer with confidence. Do your kids swim? Are you a swimmer? As we sit in the pool viewers area and watch the adults take lessons, we thought wow good on them for pushing their limits and learning something new. Learning a new skill and showing your vulnerability is a lessen in modesty. I wish them all the luck and courage to get through this.

A lession in trust

As a side story, there was this little munchkin being brought to class by her momma, she was resisting major big time. Jeff and I sat in the viewers corner watching. This timid girl was running back to the entry into the change rooms, peeking out to her momma and shaking her head no-way am I going! She then would walk out to her momma and take the scene in again, pondering. The mom eventually handed the child to the teacher.

…the child was continuously resisting – yelling out,”momma I have to tell you something…” momma please I just need to tell you something…oh man it just tested the parenting reactions, I was almost in tears ready to hear what she needed to tell her momma – whatever it might have been. Her momma was just sitting up the bench from me…respecting the teacher reassurances with her daughter. The teacher kindly but firmly brought the child into the water – with full resistance but just the first couple of times, then the fear facing child was settled in and as a result took her lesson.

Try something new

I encourage you to try something new, if I can start Karate at 41 what could you start. A language class, an art class, or join your kids lesson.? I did my research for this decision by asking the Sensai to help me. As a result, she and her daughter started at the same age as we are, this solidified my decision. Anyway, good luck to you when you do decide to join a class and let me know what you decide.

In Closing

In closing, thanks for listening today on Sports and Extra curricular activities not just for our kids, but certainly, for us as well! Thank you, it sure means a lot that you’ve chosen this podcast as part of your favourites! I love that. Please take a second to rate me and tell a friend to spread the word.

The intro and outro is by London Moss, the music for this episode is Upbeat Hi-Hat Topper. I recorded the background loops of swimming and karate.

The sound effects I chose today are:

Golf Hit

Jumping in the pool

Basketball dribbling

bicycle coasting

Bowling strike

camera shutter

record player scratching

Arabic, Chinese, French, German and Spanish numbers

I wrote and produced this show plus design the cover art for this episode through Adobe Spark.

Welcome back to another episode of Valerie’s Variety Podcast, V-Squared and a secretive recording of a taxi ride I took recently…hope you’re okay with a little eavesdropping. I’m usually quite chatty with my UBER or Taxi Drivers – insert annoyance here. BC doesn’t have UBERS – would you please get with the times!! Anyway, here’s a story about an interesting Taxi Driver – yes he’s from Pakistan, money conscious, doctors for parents, arranged marriage and more…

Take a listen…

Collection of Pakistan images

His parents are both doctors – his home food is better than any food in a restaurant – don’t we agree with this? Village food is so natural and good – he even said queen elizabeth never has never been luck to have this food.

Huge family but he’s the only one here in Canada – he feels lonely. He’s a people person as you can tell he’s very friendly. Never liked firing people – always felt bad and didn’t like this part of the job wanted something more. He wanted freedom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan

Pakistan is the 6th most populous country, along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman, in the south it’s bordered by India and to the East, Afghanistan to the west and Iran to the southwest and of course China to the north

insert this at 269

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (Sindhi: بينظير ڀُٽو‎; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation.

to travel from Pakistan to England for Higher Studies it’s an 11 hour plane ride, one would travel Start: Pakistan, fly over Turkmenistan, over Turkey, Over the Urkraine, over Poland and then land in England. From Pakistan to England

Insert at 393

Never allow him, I wonder what this would be like to be not allowed to practice medicine because your Grandfather said. If I was a doctor and not a overworked project manager – my grandfather would have said – get to practicing!

Insert at 404

Don’t pay? what a humble way to run a practice how kind is this man? A dental practice here in Canada and especially Calgary have some of the highest rates in dentistry, if you couldn’t pay you likely cannot go to the Dentist.

Insert 428

Don’t we all feel like this growing up? Compare this moment, and what he said to your life? We think our parents make money but why can we get all the things we want when we are kids. I know when I grew up with a single dad money was tight altho my dad worked two jobs and went back to school when we were just young kid – so he could earn more. Reflecting back now money can only go so far and needed to be put to bills and groceries first then the more fun things in life came after the priorities.

Insert at 438

doctors become brutal Raymond says, 60% of women in Pakistan have caesarean operation, doctors become brutal who give them that. Research shows this is a global problem or assistance depending on which way you look at it. Is much more common even in our country to be scheduled for a c-section, it’s planned, the date is provided, it’s on the doctors scheduled. a natural birth the date, time and doctor is out of our control.

Insert at 461

Not sure where he got this information but According to April of 2018 BC tops the country in caesarean birth – TOPS the country. He was leading me to believe that they were low, I know Calgary is on the rise from going through the birthing process myself having a natural birth and seeing my sister deliver her to babies – they pressured her to deliver by c-section in both cases and we had to to support and fight against it as both mother and child were not in distress – this was purely out of convenience to the doctor.

Interestingly giving birth remained the most common reason for hospitalization in Canada with 366,000 people giving birth in recent years, the next most common reason is pulmonary disease (heart problems). WOW we hear about our hospitals and emergency wards being inundated with people who are abusing the systems but really it’s the mom’s having babies.

Insert at 469

This is my perspective of BC – with adoration i feel like this is truly the way things are, growing up in the mountains in Jasper and travelling through BC on vacation we get a sense they are most connected with mother nature. Mid-wives and duals are becoming more common here and there. after educating myself more about these statistics we are relatively close in our birthing practices – in the end we want healthy babies and healthy moms.

Insert

to clarify, this is also the decision of some moms out there, they want this process to be set and organized, booked not and organic process.

Insert at 564

in 1947 13.5million people fled from one side of the British colony to the other side – a new border, millions didn’t survive and came to a violent end. The direction they took depended on their faith Hindus and Sikhs came together and separated from Muslims. This partition gave a new hope with a new nation, Pakistan.

Male Nurse, trade, upgrading their education, spending years to better their education and now they end up in Flin Flon practicing medicine. Laboratory technician in Flin Flon Manitoba only 5 muslim people living there – they are the smallest little muslin community in Manitoba.

Insert at 752

Find a partner? The pakistanies still have arranged marriages, semi-arranged marries to this day, they sometimes take a year or more to be established. And it’s between the families and not just the bride an dgroom, this starts at the age of 20. I met my husband when I was a waitress at a local golf course and he was having supper with one of my work mates. Arranged no, but 17 years later it was a good night, beef dip and all.

Insert 783

Yes you heard that right his wife stays at home and takes care of the kids for the last 10 years and has has 2 bachelor degrees 1 masters degree, 1 diploma. Umm what? She could be working here, have a nanny for her kids until they are old enough for private school and have a sense of empowerment here in Canada. Start student of the University.

Insert at 821

Hmm do you think she’s really happy at home – sounds a bit like she was a career student with this much education under her belt and being a star student at the university – now she’s home all the time taking care of her kids. This taxi driver sounds like he’s supportive of her going back to school and upgrading her education so she can if required work here in Canada.

Insert 861

isn’t this amazing that someone – a stranger saw something in this cab driver that he wanted to teach him how to drive taxi and find his way around the city – over the phone. Teach him how to deal with impatient caucasian men – this is a whole other schooling lesson in it’s self.

insert 872

this stranger gave him his number and made jokes about losing his fair due to training this stranger to him – isn’t this a nice story about paying it forward, one man changed another mans life? His very first day was really good on the job – 7 years later he has such a good disposition, very happy and content to be doing his job and how friendly is he?

I hope you enjoyed getting to know my Taxi driver Raymond. i always find this interesting getting to know someone in this short drive and how much they are willing to share with you and open up with you about their life. Im a big believer of being open to the world and the world will be open to you – it’s a serendipitous moment you will have. We are all connected. So the next time you jump into a taxi or an UBER get to know your driver and you’re world will be brighter for it.

Thanks for listening, do you have a taxi ride experience you’d like to share – please drop me a note/text or email to valerie@valeriemoss.ca as I’d love to hear your story.

The intro and outro for this podcast is recorded by London Moss, the voice recording is by me from the Vancouver Airport to my hotel inCoast Twassen Inn at Delta BC, the music I chose for this episode is through GarageBand

Todays Two Minute Tuesday we are looking at Calgary Street Art. Welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast, with your host me, Valerie Moss todays show is short and sweet. I’m calling these Two Minute Tuesdays or TMT’s. As I’ve been doing more and more research for my episodes and working full time, it doesn’t leave enough in the kitty to record and produce timely, so instead of releasing less often I’ve decided to do these short spurts in between the full episode segments. Let me know what you think. My focus as always will be Calgary, this great city, and all that’s captured within it.

Enjoy the episode.

Cement Art @ YYC

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/City-Life/A-Brief-History-of-Calgary/

Did you know the concrete murals on the side of the Glenbow museum facade are by artist Robert Oldrich. These are made of cast cement. The thoughts behind these are reflective of our city, cowboy hat, oil derrick, and our infamous chinook arch. Robert came to our great city and mixed his sand and water creations for us to enjoy, more of his work is plastered on other buildings like: Bishop Grandin High School, the previous location of the Calgary Central Library and others. He immigrated to Calgary in 1951 from the Czech Republic he past away in 1983 in the USA leaving many pottery, printmaking, mosaics and sculptures behind for all of us to enjoy – thank you Robert.

Thanks for listing to our TmTs on the Vsqared podcast. the intro and outro for this podcast is recorded by London Moss and the music I chose today is true Heart Procussion…if there’s something about Calgary or someone in Calgary that you’d like to know more about send me a note text or email to Valerie@ValerieMoss.ca

School Cases in court. I’m going to highlight a few stories that have resonated with me over the last few months. I recently attended a safety discussion at my daughter’s school. This discussion once completed brought a few other schools names and how safety played a big role along with the trust we put into the education system to keep our children safe. The amount of responsibility we put onto this institution these teachers without really realizing it. Loco Parentis meaning the teachers take the place of the parent. Now would a teacher dive in front of a bus to save your child maybe but not likely however this does mean the teacher would protect the child from bullies, assist in making the right decisions, properly assisting them with risky manouvers, etc. They are in place of a parent at school or institutional setting, looking out for the best interest of the child, your child.

Story One

June 22, 1981

Myers v Peel Country Board of Education, Ontario

Erindale Secondary School grades 9, 10, 11, 12 is part of the Peel District School board. There had been a number of the students in the gym during the regularly scheduled physical education class, there was an adjacent room setup for gymnastics and the kids in this room were trained specifically for gymnastics using the equipment that was setup. There usual teacher was away sick and the substitute teacher in the main room and approx 40 students at the peak time with class crossovers. One student trained in Gymnastics asked if his friend – not trained in gymnastics could play in this specialized room. There was approx 8 kids in this unsupervised room training gymnastics maneuvers for grade marking. The student un-trained proceeds to try out a gymnastics tactic on the rings and – succeeded. Then he tried an exceptionally hard backflip dismount and landed improperly – inadequate mats, inadequate spotters and inadequate supervision ensued. Due to the added disadvantage of poor training he was severely injured and as a result became a quadriplegic by a broken neck. There was no teacher present nor did the friend teach the kid what he needed to learn – in this short amount of time – to follow through with this exercise properly and safely. The trained friend didn’t know what the un-trained friend was about to try out so he couldn’t a) warn the kid and b) provide proper spotting.

During the court hearing it was discussed that the trained student was 20% liable and the un-trained now severely disabled student was 80% liable. This is showing ownership is put on the person who committed the fault- torts-Negligence; tort meaning suing for personal damages and negligence meaning no deliberate action but failed to act as a reasonable person. There was also discussion about the mats used – were these significant to soften the landing and prevent the injury, no. If a teacher/supervisor had been in the room would this have stopped the injury, possibly by stopping the tactic move. The discussion of ‘prudent parent’ also was disected – let’s walk through this, if a parent was in the gym and their son, knowing they haven’t been trained for this manouver wanted to test it the parent would likely say ‘no’ and rovide the proper spotters, trainers and insight into this more diligently.

In the end the school was not found liable but the students appellants were found at fault.

I would accordingly allow the appeal with costs to the appellant in this Court and in the Court of Appeal, and restore the judgment at trial, leaving intact the finding of contributory negligence against the appellant, which is well supported in the evidence, the apportionment of damages, and the disposition of costs at trial.

https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2521/index.do

Story Two

April 25, 2008

R vs A.M, Ontario

St. Patrick’s Catholic High located in Sarnia, Ontario. This High School’s principal at the time had an agreement with local police to bring in drug sniffing dogs at random and convenient to the police service to search the school. The school had been known to have drug problems on the school property as well as off school property. This intuition asks the question that the principal was onto something. The police did not have any knowledge of drugs being on the school at the time of the unscheduled search.

Here’s how this story went…all kids are in class, some have left their backpacks in the gym lined up along the wall. When the police showed up one random day – the principal at the time made an announcement that they were conducting a random police investigation and students should remain in their classrooms. The police started throughout the school ending up in the gym and the sniffer dog ‘chief’ immediately indicated to a backpack. The dog handler gave said backpack to another police officer and it was searched to find:

including five bags of marijuana, a tin box containing a further five bags of marijuana, a bag containing approximately ten magic mushrooms (psilocybin), a bag containing a pipe, a lighter, rolling papers and a roach clip. A.M.’s wallet, containing his identification, was in the backpack. A.M. was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking marijuana and possession of psilocybin (mushrooms)

The argument from the schools side is they were not involved in the investigation besides this announcement that was made to keep students inside the classrooms. The total investigation took approx 1-2 hours. This was during class time during the day at the school.

This A.M. Student was then charged. Could this have been handled another way? What about if the principal found this marijuana and drugs would it then be his/the principal’s responsibility to call the parents and have a meeting to review these items? Involve the police? What if another student found the drugs and ratted the kid out to the authorities? A.M. Student was brazen enough to bring his backpack to school full of drugs and his ID – good thing he had this on him? Then proceeded to leave this in the school gym unattended.

If your child is attending this Catholic school would you feel like this is an invasion of their privacy? Or all kids privacy? OR would it be searching for the few that may get caught keeping the rest of the student population safe from drug dealers in the school? You know a few innocent kids are made to feel uncomfortable for the whole of the population to be safe and not have drugs at the ready!

I think he shouldn’t have left his bag unattended – like ever! this kid made a decision to bring illegal drugs into a school, a government institution with intention to sell and use – he had papers, roach clip and lighter with the rest of his stash.

In the end it was concluded that the principle in good faith acted in the best interest of the school and under the convenient timing of the police for the search. And the charges stood against AM with posession and trafficking on school property.

https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/4628/index.do

Story Three

December 3, 1993

Bain v. Calgary Board of Education et al, Calgary

Twenty five years ago this case was decided in the Court…that puts me right at the same age as the students in this story at the time this story made it to Court…where were you in 1993 let’s get some perspective around this story. in 1987, A grade 11 teacher took 5 students on a forestry trip. The students convinced the teacher to allow them to climb a mountain. The teacher at time told them to ‘be back before dark’ the student with friends proceeded to trek up the mountain (not in the plans and in an unfamiliar area) and one student fell causing brain injury. The teacher-student relationship was breached when the teacher failed to accompany the students and supervise their endeavour. The teacher was 75% to blame and the student was 25% to blame.

This is interesting as I remmber being 16 and supervision by teachers wasn’t as engaged as it is today. Kids were still scene and not heard. Teachers weren’t as fully trained and acting as a parent in the school institutional capacity as today.

This student and his family were compensated almost 6 years after the incident, why would this take so long…the damages far outweighed the question surrounding the case.

The next time you have to sign a form/waiver for your child to attend an ‘off site’ event like a Calgary camp and sign a form/waiver to absolve the entity like the City of Calgary or Winsport or a recreation facility – sign it – don’t sign it this waiver could potentially be held up in court and scrutinized in all these cases the fault or negligence was shared. Loco Parentis is one of the key deciding factors. When a teacher at the school is put into the position of caring for and supporting our kids – their students, when they the teachers do not have children of their own is an entirely different position for the teacher if they have kids. One will never know the feeling of having the utmost guttural sense of protection of this small person when it’s not their own. We truely believe as parents that these teachers will do whatever is necessary to keep our kids safe and we are most grateful for this. Thank you!

Thanks for listening to the show today, for those of you who have kids, neices, nephews and have attended an extra curricular activity and had to sign a waiver instead of dismissing this pay attention to what rights you are potentially signing away. Also, give that teacher an extra pat on the back to taking care of your small person in your absense. If you have a story about a Calgary School that you want to share with me please do so and send me a note/email or text to Valerie@ValerieMoss.ca and let me know.

The intro and outro for this episode is recorded by London Moss, the theme music is Tascam 40 by Jason Schnell and some GarageBand loops I’ve chosen today are:

Todays Two Minute Tuesday we are looking at where Calgary got her name.

Two Minute Tuesdays Cover Art…

Welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast, with your host me, Valerie Moss todays show is short and sweet. I’m calling these Two Minute Tuesdays or TMT’s. As I’ve been doing more and more research for my episodes and working full time, it doesn’t leave enough in the kitty to record and produce timely, so instead of releasing less often I’ve decided to do these short spurts in between the full episode segments. Let me know what you think. My focus as always will be Calgary, this great city, and all that’s captured within it.

Enjoy the episode.

Scotland Castle

Recently the place at 142 years old, the home that gave Calgary it’s name has been sold! This castle stands proud surrounded by the lushest forest enveloping it’s firm stone beauty. The grey fortress, boasting 10 bedrooms, and gothic looking windows, has a medieval look to it. A large inviting white door and beautifully kept vibrant green lawns surround the 11 hectare property. There was a bidding war across the globe as the property’s asking price was a merely $700,000 euros approx $1.2 million, however it went for higher with interest from some tire kickers here in Canada but ultimately europeans won over the property.

Q: What does “Calgary” mean?

A: Calgary is named after Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. It was originally thought to mean “clear running water” but has since been defined as “bay farm”. Gaelic words Cala-ghearridh meaning pasture by the bay.

City of Calgary

Local Histories about Calgary

http://www.localhistories.org/calgary.html

Colonel James Macleod originally from Scotland

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/City-Life/A-Brief-History-of-Calgary/

Thanks for listing to our TmTs on the Vsqared podcast. the intro and outro for this podcast is recorded by London Moss and the music I chose today is water works synth to reflect the water surrounding the old Calgary Castle in Scotland…if there’s something about Calgary or someone in Calgary that you’d like to know more about send me a note text or email to Valerie@ValerieMoss.ca

Welcome back to a special episode of Valerie’s Variety Podcast a sensitive episode where I discuss Mental Heath…enjoy the episode

Mental-Illness-Podcast-Challenge

emotional person

wear my heart on my sleeve

lost friends and lost family to cancer

had a breakdown in my kitchen when work got too stressful

love things and people more than I should

When I was in grade 5 just 12 years old I was living in a rough area in Edmonton with rough people. I watched my neighbour take acid when I was 11 years old and have an episode. I watched my other neighbour have an epileptic attack grande mal seizure while me and my sister plus other neighbour kids were around – I remember being so scared and curious that I couldn’t look away or leave but too scared to get to close to this moment

Watched my grandmother die of cancer, lost my grandpa from my moms side he fell off a roof and had a heart attack, found by neighbour kids the same age as my daughter is today.

I have immediate family members that don’t respond to my calls, texts, emails, they aren’t around for important moments, they’re invited, they’ve been reached out to, they’re very important to me, they are included but don’t respond. They suffer from mental illness – they are crushed by their own sense of sadness and loss and can’t find their way out of it to reach out or connect tot he people that love them the most.

Watching my friend struggle with her job and her personal life at the same time. We need balance, if work is difficult your home life needs to be solid.

Sadness envelopes me when I think about my family as a child and miss everyone my heart swellsand biomes heavy – not because they are gone and don’t respond but because of the time we had together as a family – those days have passed.

Becomes heavy when I was 37 years old my husband had open heart surgery, I was looking at being a window at under 40, I was fearful my daughter would grow up without her dad

I have people in my life that are unkind, unkind to the people I love deeply – these people are mean spirited and passive aggressive and cross the line too much to count and as such I choose not to include them to save my heart from further pain.

Mental illness to me is all of these things and if we allow ourselves to be crushed by sadness, hope, disparity, strength….this will happen, mental illness will set in and conquer our lives. What we need to do is to embrace it, live it, let is fester for it’s time and then forgive it leave it by the curb and become more whole than you ever have as this is now part of you. the heavy ness of this moment, this person, this loss, this love. I have my moments, with Christmas just passed and not seeing my mom for another Christmas. BUT reaching out to the people who matter, and who you matter to is the most important.

BUT i have friends that fill up my days, and I’m open to trying, buying, eating, drinking, talking, playing, being together – saying yes when asked. Being the Asker because I need to be purposeful and fulfilled. Love life more and be better, do more and be stronger for it.

Mental Illness is our cognitive thinking skills, can we presume we know what someone is thinking, yes of course, is it accurate to the depths we want to perceive it to be, likely not. It maybe close but it’s not the everything.

For me I need to be with people, from what I know about M.I. is that it’s a lonely spot to be in, it’s cold and isolated. When you’re with people you feel warm and cared for – this matters. You matter. we need to matter to people and to the most important person – ourselves.

I lost one of the most important people to me a year ago and I have this whole in my heart even when I write this – no tears now as time has healed this emotion of breaking my barrier of tears BUT I feel sad that she’s no longer in my life, I feel like a void is truly there – she was a friend, a dear sweet, non deserving friend to be taken by cancer…BUT i’m stronger for knowing her, perhaps better to as she taught me to have more fun in life and enjoy life just a bit more.

Make life easier on ourselves and our best people. Think of these best people and why they are important, how they make you feel – why they are in your life and cherish these moments with them.

Reflect on Mental Illness, use these life trials as a ladder to build up our character, get that fodder in our lives for us to share amongst our best people at the dinner table to better our friendships. you never know who is going through these moments in life so give someone just a bit more patience do a little better to make life easier for someone else. and remember you are not alone.

thank you Valerie Moss, Valerie’s Variety Podcast

Mental Illness Podcast Challenge

stop the stigma

Thank you for listening taking a spot out of your day to be with me and to give me your time, I truly appreciate it. Think about your friends and family who are going through some hard times, give them a text, email or a call to say hi and check in – they may not respond but you can guarantee they loved hearing from you. Thank you to River for putting this Mental Health Podcast challenge out there , thanks to my friend Amber for editing this episode. Thanks to London for the intro and outro. Please share your thoughts with me…in confidence if you have a story you’d like to share about mental illness, I’ve love to be your support to hear your story.

FRIENDS

Building Friendship, Having Trust,

what does this mean, trust

Being in the moment, always

What does it mean to have a friend to have trust?

Since living in Calgary for the last 20 years I look around and feel totally amazed by the people I’ve met. Friendships that I savour. So many people impact me on a daily basis. Recently I went on a trip to Vancouver. The night before I left I got to enjoy my friend’s company. This friend isn’t like just any friend. She’s my best friend. When I think of her and be with her there’s usually tears. Happy and sad. She’s a deep thinker she’s sensitive and grounded. She’s empowered more now then ever. She’s the kind of friend who When you reach out to her no matter what time/day or moment she’s there. I adore her so. Amber.

Friends on a different levelFriends since we were teens…

This evening gave me reflection on the beauty of this friendship.

I want to know about your friend.

Who do you have in your life, the guys listening to this – who do you truly connect with? Colleagues? Your kids? Wife? Ladies who do you have? Tell me your story about your friend that you cannot live without. What’s different that stands out that makes this connection between you two – a string that binds your souls together? That person.

Moving to Calgary and Chestermere where I became a mom surrounded by a group of women going through the ins and outs of being a new mom, parent to this little perfect being. Having this group to share our moments with in a safe place environment with each other is our moment. I’ve met people that have moved me to my core. Things that people have done these little things that have made my heart redder and fuller. I love how life introduces us to these moments that when they happen you are different maybe smarter maybe prouder maybe better perhaps.

The older I get the more I look for the deeper meaning of life – no this isn’t a country song – not quantity but quality. I love things and I’m passionate excitable heart on my sleeve – all the time. I love silly moments. Drinking to much – sewing all night long. Getting lost in music for hours. Having dance parties. Being girly and pretty with my daughter. Karaoke-ing with my dad. My husband means more to me now then yesterday and even when we met. He gets me and makes me feel amazing. I hope I return the sentiments as deeply.

Trust is where this lies for me. It’s my measuring stick. Trust is it. You betray my trust and I can’t forgive you. It’s not that I haven’t tried it’s that it’s broken forever. That twig has snapped. the last 5 years has put this trust module /tactic / bad sore to the test. What do you measure this with. What’s your sizing chart? What’s your breaking stick?

You know when you lean on people for direction and leadership and they betray you? I am always shocked by this how can they do this to me? They are selfish or pull this rug out from under you and you are once again in your own two feet- it’s you in the end. Trust yourself first.

While listening to A Star is Born Soundtrack with the sun on my face sitting in seat 10 a the mountains couldn’t be clearer. Love Calgary for this Dec day that’s sunny/ Chinook in the horizon and being lucky enough to be travelling to Vancouver to celebrate another Christmas with this company. My seat mates are headed to Maui.

Calgary feels betrayed by Canada. Calgary has done so much for this amazing country. We-Calgary gives back like no other province. We are the givers and have always been a ‘have’ province. Now, I’m not the one who talk politics, talks government but I have come across two amazing write-ups lately that I wanted to shares with you as the timing is incredible for our Calgary and our world.

The first is written by anonymous my friend from junior high Shawn shared this in fb and I wanted to pay it forward as I think it sums up the betrayal Calgary and Alberta feels from Canada. In terms that are sharp and to the point!

by Anonymous

As we stand tall in yet another bust where the layoff papers again start to roll out. People watch the pumps dip below a $1.00 yet again. With the excitement of cheap gas without a care as to what’s happening behind that dollar.
We watch those rigs get stacked and trucks head home and the people of this province again can do nothing but watch as the government holds the men and women of this province at a hostage state.
No pipelines they said. No rail cars they said. No coal they said. Thousands of people laid off, and downtown Calgary sitting at a 50% vacancy rate.
Some people across the country far too satisfied at the thought of the energy sector being shut down. Yay solar panels and windmills.
Well I hate to bring the bad news Canada but windmills won’t be paying you $19 billion in equalization payments.
Some of you may not understand what an equalization payment is so I want you to think of it as child support. Alberta makes more money than the rest of the country. So we pay you child support so your province can do just a little better in life. We take care of our “have not” children. That’s right Quebec… you should really rethink the divorce as you see about 62% of that number alone.
Alberta has carried this country and many of the other provinces for years.
Now, as Alberta struggles no one is around. Not even the government that has cut off our ability to transport but has said they will not revisit the equalization payments.
So you want Albertas tax payers to pay about $3 billion towards equalization payments… on unemployment? Because that’s the reality. You will not be getting $3 billion from tax payers to hand over to the provinces who so terribly voted red when no one has a damn job.
You will not be seeing anything but Alberta crash and burn just a little more. No pun intended but hey while on that topic, thanks for the help on the Fort Mac fires! 🙄
If that is satisfactory to you and if the number at the pumps is making you happy, well just wait because as we have seen time and time again the energy sector is just the first domino. It will travel down, and soon all industries will face difficult times. Every single person across this country will face the reality of Alberta struggling.
When you face a lay-off, when you face the choice of food or electricity, and have to turn to social assistance for just a little help along the way… just remember Alberta was there for you.
Where are you?

…..

Barack Obama written by R.K. Burrice

The second is one of London’s reading books. She’s in grade 2 and it was my time to pick the book and read. I chose Barack Obama written by R.K. Burrice.. By the end of the story I was choked up. Here’s what I learnt about Barack Obama: he’s kind to the core. His mom is white and his dad also named Barack left when he was young. He was raised by his grandparents from the age of 10. He went to Harvard to become a lawyer so he could help change laws. Volunteered to help people learn about jobs- street people low income people – all people, he was collaborative and positive. He wanted to empower people – everybodyhe worked at all kinds of charities donating his smarts and his personal time. Did I mention he’s kind to the core? He’s always smiling. We miss you Obama. London asked me why this made me have an emotional reaction – hmm how do you explain this one to a 7 year old. I just said he was a kind man and the current president is very different. How would you have answered this?

—

In closing, Be someone people can trust and Rely on.have integrity – be a good person even if no ones watching or measuring. Be that best friend! I’ve been reading this book called Skeletons in my closet it’s written by a Calgary Detective Dave Sweets. He wrote don’t be average be a bit better than average – a bit better is easy. A bit better doesn’t take much effort but the results will show ten fold.

Thanks for listening to the podcast today which as produced and written by me, Valerie Moss, intro and outro recorded by London Moss. Music for this show is provided through GarageBand and today I chose:

Reflection Apreggio

Deep Connection Percussion Snaps

True Heart Plucky Synth

Free Fall Snaps 01

Record Player Scratching

Airplane-134 and Airplane-204 (recorded by me on my flight to Vancouver)

Truck Engine Pull Away 02

Recollection Plus Melody

Tascam 40

If you like this podcast and have a second to give me a rating on iTunes or your podcast app to provide me some feedback I’d love to hear from Leave me a comment on my blog or join my facebook group at Valerei’s Variety Pod – https://www.facebook.com/ValeriesVarietyPod/ or send me a text/email to Valerie@ValerieMoss.ca – I would love to hear from you.